Strawberry Field Forever
by TheLef318
Summary: Two orphans named Harris and Lily, who reside in Strawberry Field, are friends with a Teddy Boy named John Lennon. When he hits fame, they watch his life from there. Short story, will only be a few chapters or so.
1. Chapter 1

**Hi everyone! So, this is just something I pulled out from my random stream of thoughts. It won't be long, so expect shorter than usual chapters and huge time gaps. Once you get the next few chapters you'll eventually understand the story if you don't already. **

_June 1958_

"What a silly thing to call it, don't you think? Strawberries don't even grow here!"

I laughed at Lily's wise words. The two of us had met each other in this very place, when we were both very young. Orphans, we were, living here in Strawberry Field.

"Yeah, well, so?" I shot back at her. "It's just a name!"

"But a name should say something meaningful! Like your name!"

"Harris? That's sounds like someone's pet gerbil." I laughed at my own name. The orphanage was the one who had named me, since I had been here since I was an infant.

Lily stuttered. "Y-yeah . . .well . . .uh . . .whatever! You get the point anyway."

I lied down and smirked at her, just emphasizing even more my triumph over her.

"Summer's coming," I said, wanting to talk about the awaited event in the orphanage.

"Yeah . . . who do you think will be playing this year?"

"I think I heard it was somebody new . . . the Quackymen, or something like that . . ."

Lily giggled. "I'm sure it's not Quackymen."

"You said names mean something, right? They must like ducks a lot, then."

The bell rang from inside the building, meaning our free time was over. I didn't really understand the point of a bell, though, since there were only twelve kids, including us, in the orphanage. They could just as simply call out to us and we would come running anyway.

Lily and I were the oldest, being both ten years old, so we were excited the most for the Salvation Army band that came every Saturday. But during the summer, a local group would be the ones playing. It was always nice for the two of us to listen to something different and new. We had a habit of making good friendships with the band members.

We all ate our dinners in utter silence, except for the little ones being fed by their caretakers and squirming in their seats.

After that, we would be told to go to our rooms and sleep. My bed was next to Lily's so we could chat for a few before going to bed.

"Ey, Lily," I whispered out to her, tapping her shoulder just as the lights were turned off.

She turned in her bed to face me, slightly annoyed. "What do you want, Harris?"

"D'you think John will be coming here?"

"John Lennon?"

Last year, we met a nice Teddy Boy named John Lennon, who told us that he used to visit Strawberry Field to see the Salvation Army band with his aunt.

Most of the people here knew him, but we were his friends, as we were always the most excited to see him whenever he came along.

Now he visited less often, though, because he said he had a band and usually practiced with them.

"Of course him! Name one other John that we know."

"Well, maybe he's coming, I don't know." We'll all be off of school by then, so most likely."

I turned in my bed and closed my eyes, smiling. Hopefully he was coming.

We used to call him "The Field's Strawberry" because he was the only one who ever brought the "fruitiness" of the place. Without him, life was mostly dull and boring, contributing to the fact that everyone's clothes were faded to gray, and it was always cloudy, and the orphanage itself was dusty and battered.

The music was the thing that made the magic happen. That's why we had always looked forward to seeing the band, or John himself.

I slowly drifted off to sleep after a few minutes. I could already hear the rock and roll playing in my head before I even heard it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Um, heyyo! This chapter is much better than the last, and I hope it's more interesting. I don't like my readers to be bored, so hopefully I'm not doing just that . . .**

_July 10, 1958_

Lily's POV

Harris and I were both getting ready in separate rooms, excited for what was coming. Today was the day John's band would be playing in the orphanage.

And on another note, Harris and I found out that the band was called the _Quarrymen_. Hah, I knew I was right!

"Ta-dah!" Harris jumped out in front of me, wearing a coat all too big for him and a top hat with holes on the sides and jagged stripes.

But even those kinds of clothing weren't easy on our hands to get.

"C'mon Harris, it' just a band playin'! Do you really need to get all formal for them? I don't think they themselves will be . . ."

"Do looks really matter?" Harris, chuckling, rolled his eyes then looked at me, smiling. "But, do sure do look beautiful, Lily."

I smiled back and blushed a little at the compliment. "And _you, _you're dashing!"

Harris scratched the back of his head then grabbed my arm. "C'mon, I wanna see John!"

We ran out just in time to see them waiting at the red gates.

"Johnny!" We both cheered as we ran to reach out for him behind the barrier currently dividing us. He and the other boys with him chuckled. Just like John, the others also had duck-tailed like hairstyles, the Teddy Boy cut.

"'Ere, lemme open this for ya," I reached out for the handle and pulled it until it opened, and Harris and I pushed the gate open just enough for them to slide in.

"Gee, that's a lot of instruments you guys got there," Harris said, slightly amazed at the fact they had carried that all the way here.

After John set down his guitar case on the grass, he patted our heads. "How are yeh guys doin', yeh lil' seapies?"

We both giggled as he tickled us, and his friends gave him weird looks.

"We're doing great here! They're repairing the playground," I mentioned.

"Oh really, now? I used to play there when I was about your age."

"Um, John?" One of John's pals tapped his shoulder. He had slick dark brown hair that it looked black, a button nose and big brown doe eyes. "Do you mind introducing us to your friends?"

"Oh, right. Lily, Harris, I'd like to introduce you to these lads. This here is Paul, Paul McCartney," The doe-eyed boy winked. "And this is George Harrison."

A boy younger than the both of them, probably only a few years older than us, smiled and waved.

"Harrison?" Harris questioned, tossing the word back and forth in his tongue.

"That's right, little guy! Harrison's his name. Don't get confused!"

The other children and caretakers came out to help the band start the show. The other 10 kids went to play with John, Paul, George, and the other bandmates. Two girls were patting Paul's hair and were giggling at him.

After everything was set up, John announced the first song.

"This one here's a little something I wrote myself. It's called 'Hello Little Girl.'"

Everyone was clapping and tapping to the sweet melody of the song as John cheerfully sang.

A few other songs followed, mostly rock and roll, but I couldn't get the titles because Harris and I were so absorbed in dancing to the music.

Eventually the whole set ended and it was time for them to go.

The two of us tugged on to John legs while he walked.

"Will you be coming back, Johnny?" Harris asked.

"Of course I will fellas! Next week is the day,"

"Will you bring your friends with you too?" I added.

"We're not going anywhere," The one called Paul said.

"We'd like to see you again, too!" George beamed.

"Bye!" We both called out as they caught the next bus.

_One week,_ I thought. Although just seven days, a lot could happen in that span of time. Say, some parents want to adopt. Hopefully, if a couple do, then I don't want them to adopt me or Harris. It's either we go together or nothing.

Not only that, but something could happen to John or his friends as well. And I had this gut feeling in my stomach that something would.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey guys! This chapter is . . . oh god. The end of this one is eerie, but stick tight.**

_July 17, 1958_

Harris' POV

Lily and I sat at the gate the whole afternoon, waiting for the band to come. Seconds turned into minutes, minutes into hours. My legs started to feel numb and fall asleep, and so did Lily's. Even with all the pestering of the caretakers to just go play like the other kids, we said we weren't interested, and would rather sit and wait for John.

Not being able to take the waiting anymore, I tried to get up, but fell because I couldn't feel my legs. I just lay on my belly, sighing.

"Where are they? They promised that they would come today . . ." I moaned.

Lily scooted over next to me. "Yeah, I had a feeling that they wouldn't"

"How do you figure?"

"I dunno, it was just a feeling."

Well, if they weren't able to come today, there must have been a very good reason. It would be very unlikely that they would just forget . . .

Eventually playtime was over and we were forced to go back inside. All the kids questioned why the band had not come over. The caretakers shrugged, which meant that they, too, had no clue, or they just didn't want to tell us.

After dinner, Lily and I got a piece of paper and a pencil. We lay on the floor with a dim candle next to us. We were going to try and list the possibilities as to why the band might have not come.

Lily grabbed the pencil first. "Okay, forgetting _might_ be a possibility-"

"-Which is very unlikely-"

"-But still a possibility." So Lily put that down.

"My turn," I got the pencil from her wrote down _schedule conflict?_

I was surprised that we were able to fill the whole page with valid reasons. At the top, in capital letters, we put _WHY DIDN'T JOHN'S BAND COME TODAY?_

I took a look at what we had come up with and crossed my arms.

"Well, it's gotta be one of these."

"Or maybe not even." Lily added.

The window next to us suddenly flew open and we flinched a little. The cold wind put out the candle, and all we could see now was the moonlight.

"Hey, the paper!" Lily gasped.

Before I knew it, the paper was lifted by the air and went out the slit of the open window.

Looking at each other through the near darkness, we nodded at each other and tiptoed out of the bedroom and down the stairs. Making sure we made absolutely no noise, we slowly, _very_ slowly, creaked open the door and rushed out.

We looked through the tiny field for that piece of paper which although contained little meaning had much meaning to the two of us. The yard was small but the grass was thick due to a missed session of lawn mowing, which made it even harder to look, as if the darkness wasn't enough already.

"Look, there it is!" I looked to see Lily's silhouette point to something caught in a weed right in front of the gates. We dashed to it and started untangling it when a man appeared at the gates.

We froze, startled at his sudden and unexpected appearance. He looked completely harmless, though, and looked like he just wanted to say something.

We obliged and inched closer to him. He wasn't a man at all, just a teenager, but we still couldn't see his face.

He handed us a piece of paper which a carefully got and stored in my pocket. Then, then he . . .

He looked at us and my mouth dropped open. We both knew who he was.

Just for a split second we saw his face. It was sad, afraid, and consoling. Then, he ran away.

I looked at Lily, saying nothing, and reached for the paper in my pocket. We opened it, frightened at what could be written there.

"No . . ." Lily stared at the seven words, plain in sight. It said it all.

_John's Mum is dead. We're terribly sorry . . ._

. . . We found the one reason why the band didn't come.

But why did we have to believe what was written here? It could've been a sick joke, and the stranger who had given it to us was just somebody who knew John.

The thing is, it wasn't a stranger.

It was Paul McCartney.


End file.
